How To Make Collard Greens
Although collard greens are a Southern classic, many people do not know how to cook collard greens. Even though making collard greens looks intimidating, it is actually easy. If you want an easy recipe for cooking collard greens, be sure to keep reading.
What Are Collard Greens:
Collard greens are a type of cabbage that is originally from Europe. Although collard greens are a classic Southern dish, collard greens are also grown in the Mediterranean region of Europe, northern India, and Brazil. In fact, sauteed collard greens are a common side dish for feijoada, a famous black bean and ham hock stew from Brazil.
Even though collard greens can be prepared several ways, the most common method in the Southern United States is to boil them with some sort of smoked meat, usually a ham hock or a turkey wing. Bacon can also be used to flavor greens. Furthermore, even though someone from the Southern United States is likely going to eat collard greens when he or she eats “greens,” “greens” may also refer to mustard greens, the leaves of the mustard plant, or turnip greens, the leaves of the turnip plant. Kale is sometimes boiled with smoked meat as well, and cooking multiple types of greens together is common as well. As you can see, there is a lot more to know about “greens” than you may think.
How to Cook Collard Greens
As previously stated, the most traditional way to make classic southern collard greens is to boil the leaves with smoked meat, the smoked meat added not only extra protein but also flavor from the fat and smokiness. The most important ingredient when learning how to cook collard greens is patience: making collard greens is a very long process. Collard greens themselves are thick and tough, so the cook time for collard greens is longer than for a smaller, thinner leafy green such as spinach. In addition, it takes time for the smoked meat to break down and create a broth. Since cooking collard greens takes a lot of time, it is best to set a lot of time for cooking.
The first step in learning how to cook collard greens is to wash each collard green leaf individually. After washing the leaves and letting them dry, use a knife to remove the stem from each collard green leaf. Each collard green leaf has a thick, fibrous stem that needs more cook time than the rest of the leaf; so, if you do not want your stems to be hard, remove them so that you can boil the stems for longer than the rest of the leaf.
After removing the stems, the next step in how to cook collard greens is to cut both the thick stems and the thinner leaves into smaller, 1/2-inch pieces. Be sure to keep the stems and leaves separate.
If you are going to cook collard greens the same day that you prep the leaves, you can now add the stems to the stock water; if not, you can freeze collard greens so that you can make them another day. I highly recommend this: prepping the leaves, making the stock, and then cooking the collard greens is a lot of work in just one day.
Collard Greens Cook Time
If you leaves are already prepped (or if making your greens on the same day, before you start work on the leaves themselves), another import part of knowing how to cook collard greens is making a good stock. I place smoked meat, onion, and garlic in a pot of water, turn on the heat, and let everything boil for one hour to make a stock. Then, I let everything cool until I am able to remove the smoked turkey, pull the meat off the bone, and return everything to the pot. Also, I use a spoon to mash the onion and the garlic. By boiling the garlic and onion, there is no need to chop them finely and saute them: at this point, the garlic and onion should be very soft.
However, the crucial next step in learning how to cook collard greens is the collard greens cook time: be sure to add the stems, turn on the heat, and boil for half an hour before adding the rest of the leaves. By boiling the collard green stems for a bit longer, they will be just as soft as the rest of the leaf. If you do not give the collard greens stems slightly more cook time than the rest of the collard greens leaves, the stems will be noticeably tougher. It is also at this time that you should add your seasonings such as salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, etc: some people add vinegar, hot sauce, or even sugar.
Another important detail to note about how to cook collard greens is that you should freeze the stems and leaves in separate bags: if you freeze the stems and leaves in the same bag, it will be impossible to separate the stems from the leaves.
After cooking the collard green stems for half an hour, add the rest of the leaves, and continue to boil on high for another hour, adding water when necessary. As you can see, knowing the right collard greens cook time is essential to learning how to cook collard greens.
Since the collard greens cook time is an hour and a half from the moment you add the stems, there is plenty of time to make other parts of the meal. Southern skillet cornbread is great with collard greens, start to prep your ingredients when the stems go into the stock. Even though making collard greens seems hard, it’s actually easy: it just takes time, patience, and knowing how to cook collard greens.
How To Cook Collard Greens: Recipe
Ingredients
- (For each pound of raw collard greens leaves)
- 1 lb of smoked meat, such as turkey wings or ham hocks (454g)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon pepper
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 small onion
- 3-4 garlic cloves
Instructions
- (BEFORE: Place meat, garlic, and onion in a large pot of water, and boil on high for 1 hour.)
- Wash each collard green leaf individually.
- Use a knife to cut out the stems.
- Cut the stems and the rest of the leaves into 1/2 inch pieces.
- (If freezing, freeze stems and leaves in separate bags)
- Remove meat from water, remove meat from bones, and return both meat and bones to pot.
- Use a spoon or spatula to cut or mash the onion and garlic in the water.
- Add the collard greens stems, turn the heat on high, and boil for 1/2 hour (30 minutes)
- Add the rest of the leaves, and continue to boil on high for 1 more more
- Stir occasionally, and add water if needed
- After 1.5 hours, the greens are done: cover and let sit 5-10 minutes before serving
How to Cook Collard Greens: Video Tutorial:
Be sure to watch my YouTube video on how to cook collard greens:
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collard_greens
